Events News RHG Articles

Public Service: Hoffman Estates Independence Day Parade

The club recently assisted with the Hoffman Estates Independence Day Parade. This event is slightly different than most public service deployments. Typically, ham radio volunteers are only expected to be communicators, helping event staff effectively communicate over a large area. While we still used our radios and communications skills, we are also responsible for getting all parade units lined up in the proper order in the staging prior to the parade beginning. We have worked with the village for many years and appreciate that they trust us with this task.

Rob N9MVO served as net control operator for the event and was also our liaison with the village. He reports that the event went very well. He also commented that we were able to assist the police in locating a girl who had been separated from her mother during the event. While the club didn’t necessarily plan for this contingency all of our operators were very professional in their response.

Jim KB9RGU was located at the parade reviewing stand and commented “Excellent job by everyone involved!”

Thanks to Robert  W9RKK for the photos.

Club members meet at the next control station at the conclusion of the parade.
Parade units line up in the staging area
N9MVO (center) briefing club members on the deployment details.
Club member finishing up their deployment by meeting with net control.
W9RKK helping parade participants line up in the staging area.
Events RHG Articles

General Level License Class

Members of the club will host an 8 week general level license class. The class is free at the Hoffman Estates Library. Sign ups will be available through the library’s web site.

We will be teaching from the ARRL General Class License Manual 8th Edition also available from Amazon. We recommend that you have the book available for the 8-week duration of the class.

On Saturday, November 3 (one week after the last class session) the club will hold it’s monthly VE testing session at the Schaumburg Community Recreation Center where you can take the exam to upgrade to your general license.

Please contact our education chair if you have questions. Continue reading “General Level License Class”

RHG Articles

President’s Report June 2018

Field day came together very well with our station captains and food captains bearing a good portion of the up-front work getting equipment and supplies together. We were able to return to our usual location at the water tank on Plum Grove road, but we implemented a shorter setup time. I’m glad to say that we had plenty of members on hand to get three stations on the and hoist three antennas up to the tank to support our operations. All of our stations were on the air at the start of field day at 1pm which was some excellent work by everyone involved.

I was able help three different people make their first HF contacts. It was a lot of fun to be able to coach them through the process, and then explain that we’re using about as much power as the laptop sitting on the table next to the radio consumes.

A complete report on field day with pictures will be posted in the July RHG including our score total. If you have any pictures that you’d like included please post them to SARC-all or use the form at the bottom of the web site to submit them.